Swimming Pool Plans Discussed by Crockett City Council
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – During the Crockett City Council meeting held on Monday, Aug. 16, a lengthy discussion was held concerning the city’s plans for a new swimming pool. Joining in on the discussion were members of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, who had been invited to attend the council session for a workshop on the matter
As the workshop got underway, Crockett Mayor Dr. Ianthia Fisher expressed, “What we really wanted to ensure was that the Parks and Recreation Department played an active part in this. I think this is really important and one of the things I like about the different boards and committees is that actively take part before decisions are made and then passed on.”
City Administrator John Angerstein presented a map of the area where the city’s former pool had operated and where the city hoped to build a new aquatic area. He presented two options for where the pool could be located. The first option was to locate the new pool where the old pool had been. The second option was to locate the pool where the old pavilion currently sits.
Angerstein explained the former pool location was not exactly ideal for the new, proposed construction because it was not engineered to have a pond within close proximity to it and the city had drained the pool every year to clean it. This caused the pool to float up in the ground when the weight of the water was removed and to sink when the water was added, which eventually caused one end of the pool to become lopsided.
As the workshop continued, the city administrator presented the council with three concepts.
Angerstein indicated, “We had a $775,000 budget but now we’re down to $745,000 because of paying our bond counsel and financial advisor that did all the documents filed with the state. We still have the construction and design engineering. The design engineering is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000. That leaves us with roughly $700,000 in the construction budget.”
Following several more minutes of discussion, with input from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board members, a motion was made to locate the new pool at the site of the old pavilion.
Dr. Fisher said, “We’re comfortable with demolishing the old pavilion because it would take so much to keep it up and put the new pool area there.”
A multi-functional design which has a wading area, water slides and four lanes for swimming was chosen by the council. The pool lanes will be approximately half the size of an Olympic pool and the entire facility will hold between 250 and 200 people at full capacity.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
